


Making A Home

by afterafternoons



Category: The Book of Mormon - Ambiguous Fandom, The Book of Mormon - Parker/Stone/Lopez
Genre: Family, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:35:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23724673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afterafternoons/pseuds/afterafternoons
Summary: Sometimes, Kevin says things he doesn’t think anyone will hear — in a family with five kids it’s easy to go unnoticed. So, in between his mother feeding baby Hannah and his brother recounting the questions he’d flubbed on his constitution test, Kevin slips in a quick, “I don’t think I like meatloaf” and expects to be ignored as he picks apart the rest of the food on his plate. At the very least, Kevin can stand the mashed potatoes.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	Making A Home

**Author's Note:**

> BoM 10 Day Challenge: Day Eight

“Kevin, honey, can you wrap up your drawings and put the coloring book away so your brothers can set the table for dinner? Your father will be home any minute.” Mrs. Price requests, looking disheveled and almost out of breath as she settles Kevin’s youngest sister, Hannah, into her high chair. As quickly as his mother had appeared at the dining room table, she returns to the kitchen to finish making dinner, leaving Kevin to blink at his little sister as he processes the commotion. 

From the dining room he can hear his mother call up the stairs, “Ellen, dinner!” Though with Ellen, there’s no haste or urgency, and she beats to the sound of her own drum. 

His drawing isn’t finished, but Kevin collects his things and hops off his chair as his brothers close in — Jack with the napkins and the plates and Ethan with the placemats and the silverware.

“Lions aren’t purple.” Jack notes, stopping briefly to look over Kevin’s shoulder at his artwork. 

“Mine is.” Kevin wrinkles his nose and Jack shrugs, moving on. Across the room, Hannah babbles from her high chair and Kevin neatly tucks the coloring book away in the cabinet before attending to her. Around him, his brothers chat as Mrs. Price finishes dinner — right up until the front door opens and almost as if on cue, Ellen slips into the dining room, squeezing Kevin’s shoulders before she kisses Hannah’s forehead.

“Good evening!” Mrs. Price calls from the kitchen, busy transferring hot dishes from the stovetop to the table. “You’re right on time, dear.” 

Kevin’s father collects a kiss on his way in, only briefly holding up his mother before the kids get a greeting of their own. “Ellen, Ethan, Jack, Kevin.” His fathers acknowledges, reaching to pinch Hannah on the cheek before taking his seat — and each of the brothers scramble to theirs, Ellen taking her own seat with a mastered and deliberately slow precision that has their fathers jaw clenched in annoyance. 

Once Mrs. Price has triple checked that everything’s been turned off, she too assumes her place at the dining table. 

Kevin follows his father's lead as he bows his head to lead them in prayer. “. . . Please bless this food to nourish and strengthen our bodies. We say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.” 

“Amen.” Kevin says in unison. 

“How was your day at school?” Mr. Price asks the older boys as they get to dishing up plates, leaving the question open ended to whichever boy wanted to take it.

“I found out I passed the constitution test.” Ethan says and Kevin mostly tunes everything out. 

Sometimes, Kevin says things he doesn’t think anyone will hear — in a family with five kids it’s easy to go unnoticed. So, in between his mother feeding baby Hannah and his brother recounting the questions he’d flubbed on his constitution test, Kevin slips in a quick, “I don’t think I like meatloaf” and expects to be ignored as he picks apart the rest of the food on his plate. At the very least, Kevin can stand the mashed potatoes. 

Unfortunately for Kevin, he hadn’t accounted for a brief lull in conversation and his father had been the first one to hear his mutterings. “Kevin,” he says sternly, “do you know how hard your mother worked on dinner? You finish what’s on your plate or you don’t leave the table.” 

Kevin frowns, staring at the meatloaf he’d haphazardly picked apart. 

“Kevin, did you hear what I said?” 

“Yes.” Kevin nods, briefly refraining from nudging the meatloaf away from his mashed potatoes, so at the very least he can enjoy the best part of his meal uncontaminated. 

“Acknowledge me when I’m talking to you.” Mr. Price says and Jack snickers across the table, receiving a reprimanding glare as Kevin obediently lifts his chin to meet his father's eyes. “You finish what’s on your plate,” he says again, slowly so he knows Kevin’s understanding what he’s saying, “or you don’t leave the table. This isn’t a restaurant, you eat what your mother serves you.”

His mother blinks at him slowly as if to encourage Kevin to do as his father says and Kevin sighs, losing his appetite for even his mashed potatoes. It’s not Kevin’s fault that his father is also raising four other kids and at five years old, Kevin sometimes gets asked to act older than he is.

“Don’t talk to him like that.” Ellen says, chin held high and her father seethes across the table. There’s a tension Kevin’s brain can’t comprehend, and he doesn’t yet realize that in less then a month when she turns eighteen, she fully intends to move out, and he may as well never see her again. 

Mr. Price holds direct eye contact with his daughter and everyone watches with baited breath. “I am the head of this household.” Their father asserts, using his utensils to gesture to himself, “I don’t care how old you’re about to be, you are a kid. He is a child. If he wants to leave the table, he’ll eat his meatloaf. I want you to think before you talk to me like that again, you hear me? End of discussion.” 

Indignantly, Ellen lifts her chin a little higher, and though their father has never laid a hand on any one of them, she’s not about to test her limits by storming off. Instead, in silent protest she pushes her plate away.

“Then you don’t eat.” Mr. Price decides, and he stands from the table to collect her plate. “Go to your room.”

And she does, squeezing Kevin’s shoulder as she passes. 

Ultimately, Kevin finds himself swinging his legs back and forth as his brothers clear the table around him, his plate still relatively full. He may be young, but he knows Ellen had done what she could to stand up for him. “Mom,” Ethan says, making a pointed show of the whole affair, “I loved your meatloaf.” 

“Thank you, honey.” His mother replies, her brow furrowed as she wipes food off of baby Hannah’s face with a wet dish towel and Jack smirks at Kevin as he clears every plate but his.

Mr. Price is long gone, shutting himself in his office to finish the day’s paperwork and Kevin sighs again, catching sight of his reflection in the sliding glass door. “We’re not eating this.” He tells himself defiantly and if it’s possible, he picks apart the meat into smaller bits with his fork. 

He listens as Jack and Ethan do the dishes and he listens to the TV as they settle in for their hour of allotted screen time before bed and still he stares at himself in the reflection of the door. He’s probably going to die in this chair. 

Eventually his mother makes her way back to him, settling into a chair across from him, her hair falling out of the ponytail she’d had it in, “So you don’t like meatloaf?”

Kevin shakes his head. 

Gently, Kevin’s mother reaches across the table to take his plate with a soft smile, “Let’s go get ready for bed, Kev.”

As Kevin gets ready for bed, Ellen slips into the bathroom while he brushes his teeth and she stalls briefly, until there’s footsteps in the hall and she reaches for her own toothbrush. “It’s just me.” Their mom says softly, and she touches a hand to Ellen’s forearm, “Can you help him get changed, please?” 

Ellen recoils at the touch, but she nods anyway and Mrs. Price shuts the door behind her as she leaves. 

“Hey, buddy.” Ellen sighs, and she sets her toothbrush back onto the mirror’s ledge. “I’m sorry Dad yelled at you tonight, and made you sit at the table for a really long time.” She lowers her voice to a whisper as she kneels in front of him, “I don’t like meatloaf either.”

“Do you eat the stuff you don’t like?” Kevin asks, frowning as Ellen wipes his chin and stands to fill a cup with water so he can rinse his mouth. 

She sighs, running a hand through his hair and she knows she’ll look back on all of this with some regrets, but she isn’t meant to be here any longer than she has to be, even if that means leaving her little brothers behind. “Sometimes, yeah.” She offers, rather than try to explain to her youngest brother why she’ll be leaving in a couple months time. 

Ellen helps Kevin into his pajamas, making sure he’s got everything on the right way and she pulls him in for a tight hug, kissing his forehead.  **“Relax,** Kev, everything’s gonna be alright.” But she doesn’t know if she’s saying it more for her benefit or for his. Gently, she pinches his cheek, “Are you all ready for bed?”

He nods furiously, and she smiles, ushering him out of the bathroom and into the boys’ bedroom where Ethan and Jack are already settling down for the night. “Be nice to each other, please.” She says, lingering by the light switch as Kevin climbs into the trundle bed beside Jack’s lower bunk and she gives a small smile as she turns out the light. “G’Night, love you guys.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos & Comments appreciated!  
> Tumblr: @afterafternoons


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